Day 17 - California, we need to talk

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Posted from: Long Beach, CA

Miles driven: 272

Total trip miles: 3,440

We woke up to temperatures in the 90's. We packed up and hooked up the trailer. As Matt was doing a walk around to make sure everything looked okay, he noticed that a trailer tire was low. Really low. We needed to get on the road and have two full size spares with us, so Matt changed the tire and we got on the road.

It wasn't long before we hit California going-home-from-Vegas Sunday traffic. It was a long slow hot road. 

We finally made it to California. What is the deal with California's speed limit laws?! You have two types of vehicles sharing the road going two different speeds! Common sense would tell you that it is not safe. It is a simple concept called "flow of traffic". So if you are towing something (even a little jet ski trailer), you cannot drive over 55mph in this state. Say what?! Everyone around you is going 70/75. 

This guy feels rediculous driving 55 pulling his little jet ski among the semis. 

This was the first day that we let the kids watch movies while traveling. 

While the kids were absorbed in their movie, Matt and I may have gone a little insane between Baker and Barstow. I mean we were hilarious in that had-to-be-there sort of way. We laughed so hard about just about anything. Every song was funny...and if it wasn't we made up new words for the song. All other travelers were the subjects of jokes. Matt talked using weird voices. I think he even screamed a few times...it kind of sounded like Julia Child (or how I imagine she would scream anyway). Wait, maybe this is what delirium is...hmm..I'll have to think about that.  The kids's movie ended, and they started talking in their I'm-totally-scared voices, so we snapped back into reasonable parent mode...mostly.

At one point we came upon a semi pulling a double trailer that was swerving all over the road. 

Matt told me to close my eyes as we passed. 

Emily upon opening eyes: Are we in heaven?

Matt (in a very frustrated voice): No. We are nowhere near Iowa.

We finally made it to the LA area! Matt was not amused:

Our PSA for today goes something like this:

When you pull your Prius or Porche out in front of a truck pulling a trailer... Wait, what am I saying?! DONT pull out in front of a truck pulling a trailer! We can't stop quickly, and it's going to hurt you more than it hurts us...maybe. 

And finally around dinner time we arrived at our good friend's house in Long Beach. Yeah!!! It was beautiful! We were surrounded by orange, lemon, peach and plum trees. I could get used to this. Best. Campground. Ever. (Except for maybe the 12.5% grade tight curve coming down their street. They chose to wait until we got there to break that little tidbit of news. Ha! Good thing Matt is really good at maneuvering the trailer!)

We arrived in time to celebrate Milissa's birthday! 

It was a beautiful evening with wonderful weather. (Wait. What am I saying? The weather is always amazing here!) We had a great time catching up with good friends we haven't seen in a long time. The kids swam in the pool, and we had s'mores. How could it be more perfect? All thoughts of our frustrating travel day had vanished.